In article . com,
says...

Scott Seidman wrote:
wrote in news:1156263793.244875.32950
@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

Now, I would certainly favor a flies and lure only regulation, for
common sense reasons, the mortality of a barbed treble hook is about
the same or less than a single barbless hook. This is just a fact.


Can you point to a reference? I can't see how this can be the case, having
experience hooking a fish on both sides of the mouth with a spinner. I
haven't used a treble hook since.

--
Scott
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Hi Scott,

This data is pretty standard and represents the most recent data.

To Wit:
http://www.reellife.co.nz/reellife/1...e_sthland2.asp

and from:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:... ct=clnk&cd=12

While it is (in affect) negligible and consistent in all the studies:

"Treble hooks had lower mortality than single hooks, and barbless hooks
had lower mortality than barbed hooks"

This is thought to be because the treble hook spreads the injury to
more, less lethal, penetration levels.

Most of the studies that I've seen suggest that treble hooks have lower
mortality due to two effects. 1) They tend to not be used with bait so
are not swallowed. 2) They are larger than single hooks and so tend to
hook in the mouth vs being swallowed.

Barbed vs barbless mortality comes up time and time again as
statistically insignificant. You can decide not to use barbed hooks
due to fear of hooking yourself or someone else, but there's no evidence
that it reduces fish mortality.
- Ken